I have a 1980 Trans Am that someone must have done some strange wiring to.

My turn signals don't work at all. And whenever I press the brake pedal my front parking lights come on, basically like I have brake lights in the front of the car. The turn signal indicator lights in the dash also light up when I hit the brakes. The parking lights still come on like normal when I just turn them on with the headlights, and everything else on the car works as it should.

I want to say it seems like the parking lights were somehow spliced into the brake lights or something. I really want to get the turn signals working on this thing.

Does anyone have any idea what could have happened here and how I could fix it? I don't even know where to begin. This car had an engine swap so I'm thinking someone put something in the wrong place when putting it back together.

67Mustang Al.

06-12-2012 05:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by valtiel43

I have a 1980 Trans Am that someone must have done some strange wiring to.

My turn signals don't work at all. And whenever I press the brake pedal my front parking lights come on, basically like I have brake lights in the front of the car. The turn signal indicator lights in the dash also light up when I hit the brakes. The parking lights still come on like normal when I just turn them on with the headlights, and everything else on the car works as it should.

I want to say it seems like the parking lights were somehow spliced into the brake lights or something. I really want to get the turn signals working on this thing.

Does anyone have any idea what could have happened here and how I could fix it? I don't even know where to begin. This car had an engine swap so I'm thinking someone put something in the wrong place when putting it back together.

( without seeing your car i am assuming you have a switch similar to my Mustang which has two pins, one of which is live all the time. The other pin goes active when the switch is activated and powers up the brake globes)

I would start in the trunk area and see what colour wire your brake light globes are fed by. You need to trace that wire. It will probably be sitting next to the brake pedal switch or somewhere nearby disconnected. When you think you have found it connect it to the brake pedal switch. The other side of the two prong switch should be live all the time fed from the fuse panel. Your park light will be fed by the wire from the brake switch and the wire from the light switch, two power feeds.
Or , you can start frm the park light wire in the front and work your way back to the light switch and find where the brake wire is connected to your park light circuit.
A diagram would help
Cheers
Al.

EOD Guy

06-12-2012 05:40 AM

Sounds like your light switch or steering column turn signal mech is buggered up, somewhere you have a wire/switch crossed or shorted. If the previous owner did a eng swap.... very possible they played with the wires out of the column.

You need to determine if it's the turn signals or the parking lights getting the cross feed, you should have a dual filament bulb and it would help if you knew what side to chase….

Remove the lens covers and see which filament in each bulb is doing what, not if the light lights…..
Do the haz flashers work both front and rear?
Do the turn signals work both front and rear?
Do the parking lights work both front and rear?
Do the brake lights work in the rear?

The front parking lights are fed from the headlight switch on one filament of the bulb.
The front and rear turn signals are fed from the steering column turn sig mech, on the other filament.
The rear parking lights are fed from the headlight switch
The rear turn/brake lights are fed from the brake light switch thru the turn signal mech..... that once again is located in the steering column.

From your symptoms it sounds as tho’ the brake light feed is bleeding over into the front turn sig lights….. not the parking lights,….The only common area is the turn sig mech located in the steering column. The turn sig mech interupts the brake light feed to allow the rear turn sig to work when you step on the brake etc.... Now this is based off-of.......Do I remember correctly......lol

sparkchaser

06-12-2012 06:20 AM

Check all the bulbs and make sure no one has put a single contact bulb in a double contact socket. Remove the bulbs one at a time to see if the problem goes away, could be an internally shorted bulb.

justold

06-12-2012 07:02 AM

I would think you have a bad ground connection . have someone apply the brakes and turn on the parking lights if they go out you have a bad ground .

ChristianJ72

03-06-2014 12:34 PM

my 1972 nova with a straight 6 does the exact same thing, and i am currently in the process of rewiring it. the wiring was done by the previous owner and it is a mess. i think they were on drugs...

painted jester

03-06-2014 12:48 PM

Might have already been said ! but a burned break light filament in the bulbs can cross and touch the running light or tail light filament and cause exactly what your talking about and can be taken care of with a simple changing of the bulbs:thumbup:

Jester

joe_padavano

03-06-2014 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by justold
(Post 1564649)

I would think you have a bad ground connection . have someone apply the brakes and turn on the parking lights if they go out you have a bad ground .

Unless a P.O. completely hacked the wiring, this^^^ is the problem. The 1157 bulbs have two filaments with a common ground. If the rear socket ground is bad, the brake light circuit will back feed the parking lights through the common filament connection inside the bulb.

vicrod

03-06-2014 05:06 PM

X3 on the bad ground.
When things get weird, look for a bad ground.
Try this test.
Take a 20 foot piece of wire (#16 is big enough for this) and connect one end to a good ground. Then touch the other end to the socket shell of the rear brake/tail light socket with the turn signal on.
You might want to make sure all the bulbs are new or known to work. Also the turn signal flashers.
Eliminate the easy stuff first.
Once you rule out bad grounds and bulbs then you can define the problem better.

vicrod

496CHEVY3100

03-06-2014 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by painted jester
(Post 2175537)

Might have already been said ! but a burned break light filament in the bulbs can cross and touch the running light or tail light filament and cause exactly what your talking about and can be taken care of with a simple changing of the bulbs:thumbup:

Jester

THIS is a 90% chance of the problem ,,has ben in my past experience.:D